Haunted House
by Stargazer79
Summary: It's Halloween and everyone goes to a haunted house.


"Let's go already, before Halloween is over!" Callisto complained impatiently, trying to get the slowpokes to move faster.

"Go where?" Tataka asked. "Trick-or-treating is for babies."

Gabrielle stopped herself from announcing how excited she was to go trick-or-treating.

"I know that!" Callisto said defensively. "We're going to the haunted house."

"Why didn't anyone tell me!" Tataka exclaimed, jumping up to go get ready. Finally, they left the house and started on their way.

"I hope it's really scary!" Deianeira said excitedly.

"I won't be scared," Mephistopheles claimed.

"I bet ten dinars you will be," Deianeira returned.

"Will not."

"Will too."

"Don't start," Xena warned.

When they arrived at the haunted house it was deserted. They kept going toward it.

"Does it bother anyone else that we're the only ones here?" Mattie asked, hesitating on the creaky front porch. "There's not even any workers telling us where to go and stuff."

"Stop being such a baby," Hope told her. "We're just the only ones brave enough to come. Except you."

The Executioner opened the door to the dark house before anyone could change their mind and they went inside. They walked down a long, dark hallway with lots of doors on each side.

"Are we supposed to go in one of these door?" Trance asked.

"I dunno," Kaavi answered. "Let's try one."

Trance picked a door and slowly opened it. She peeked inside and saw nothing unusual. She turned around to tell everyone but found they were all gone.

"Uh, hello?" Trance asked. "Kaavi?...Mattie?...Anyone?"

...

Thalassa found herself alone in the hallway. "They must have went through a door without me," she muttered. She chose one for herself and opened it.

It was so dark inside that she couldn't see past the doorframe. She was just starting to close it to go pick another door when something leaped out of the shadows and nearly sliced her head off.

Thalassa screamed but luckily ducked in time. She slammed the door and took off down the hallway. She barged through another one and collided with Mephistopheles.

He laughed at her. "You're scared!"

"So what!" Thalassa replied. "Something jumped out at me with an axe!"

"You sure it wasn't the Executioner?" Mephistopheles asked as he got up off the ground.

"It tried to cut my head off!" Thalassa told him.

"Yeah, she's known to do that," he said, going back out into the hallway.

"Where are you going? Thalassa asked.

"No idea, but I'm not gonna just sit around."

"You can't just leave me here."

Mephistopheles turned and gave her a look. "Would you like to come with me?"

Thalassa pondered that. "Well, you wouldn't be my first choice to hang out with in a haunted house, but I guess it's better than being alone."

She looked up to see he was already a good distance down the hall. "Hey, wait for me!" she cried, running to catch up.

...

Gabrielle was all alone in a pitch black room. She wanted to leave but she couldn't seem to find the door. She jumped when she heard a bunch of high pitched screams. They continued until the room was echoing with people screaming.

Gabrielle started running, hoping to find a door or atleast a wall. Then the screaming suddenly stopped and she heard a door open and close behind her. She whirled around but still couldn't see anything.

"Hello?" Gabrielle called out. "Is someone there?"

She heard footsteps coming toward her. "Xena?" Gabrielle guessed hopefully.

The footsteps sped up into a run and Gabrielle stumbled backwards over something that hadn't been there a second ago. Then something jumped onto her, pinning her down, and she yelped in fright, struggling to get away.

"Calm yourself, it's just me," came Callisto's voice. The thing on top of Gabrielle rolled off and she got up.

"That's not very reassuring, Callisto," Gabrielle said. "Why did you attack me?"

"I didn't, I tripped over something."

They stood there in awkward silence for a moment. Then Gabrielle asked, "Were you screaming earlier?"

"No, why would I scream for no reason?" Callisto replied. Then, on second thought, she added, "Don't answer that. Why?"

"I heard screaming."

Suddenly the lights snapped on and they both screamed as they realized they were in a room full of dead people. And the dead people were getting up...

...

Tataka finally found a room with some light inside. She went in and closed the door behind her.

"Who's that? Help me!" A voice called from around the corner.

"Who are you?" Tataka asked in reply.

"Deianeira," the voice answered.

"How do I know you're really Deianeira?"

"Uh, 'cause I said so. Please hurry!"

"What if you're the haunted house trying to trick me?" Tataka questioned suspiciously.

"I'm not! Stop being so paranoid and come help me!" Deianeira pleaded.

Tataka peeked around the corner and saw Deianeira trapped in a huge spiderweb. She ran over and managed to pull her out of it. "Where's the spider?" she asked, looking around.

"I don't know, let's just get out of here," Deianeira responded.

They jogged toward the door, but right when they rounded the corner the giant spider was there. They skidded to a stop and the spider got ready to lunge.

Tataka spun around and shouted, "Run!" She pushed Deianeira to go but accidentally knocked her down and tripped over her. The spider sailed over them. They leaped to their feet and sprinted to the door. They didn't stop until they were far from that room.

...

Xena was carefully walking through a dark room. Despite her caution she still ran into someone.

"Who's that?" Xena asked.

"Me," a very imformative voice said.

"Gabrielle, there you are!" Xena hugged her. "I've been looking for you."

"Eww, get off! I'm not Gabrielle, I'm Hope," Hope said, shoving at Xena.

"Oh," Xena said, sounding disappointed and a little disgusted. "You guys sound the same."

"No we-"

"Wait, shh," Xena shushed her. "Do you hear that?"

"Don't you shush...yeah, I do hear it," Hope answered.

There was heavy breathing coming from right above them. "What is it?" Hope whispered.

"I don't know," Xena whispered back. She grabbed Hope's arm and started guiding her toward where she thought the door was. "Let's just walk away quietly."

As they moved away the sound of claws clicking on the floor joined the breathing. "It's following us," Hope whispered.

"Shh."

"Don't tell me to-" Xena covered Hope's mouth with her hand and started dragging her faster.

The thing in the room with them took a big breath and breathed fire right past them. It lit up the room enough for Xena to spot the door. They managed to get through it and slammed it behind them, leaning on it to make sure it stayed closed.

Hope glanced at Xena. "Well, atleast it missed."

They suddenly flew forward when another blast of fire unhinged the door. They were sent crashing through another one on the other side of the hallway. Then they got up and ran without looking back.

...

"Go, go, go!" Callisto ordered, pushing Gabrielle from behind.

"I am going!" Gabrielle looked back at the army of zombies chasing them. They burst through a door into the hallway. As they were running another door opened and Kaavi and the Executioner bumped into them.

"What are you guys in a hurry for?" Kaavi asked.

Gabrielle turned and pointed, but the zombies were no longer there.

Kaavi tried not to laugh at them. "You were running from nothing?"

The Executioner laughed at them.

"It wasn't nothing!" Gabrielle claimed.

"There were zombies!" Callisto added.

Kaavi shrugged. "I don't see any-" She cut herself off when something grabbed her from behind.

The Executioner took off running when she saw the zombie that had a hold of Kaavi. Callisto and Gabrielle were right behind her.

Kaavi struggled with the zombie and managed to shake it off. She caught up to the others, followed by the whole army of dead people.

"Thanks for your help, guys!" she said sarcastically.

"What could we have done!" Callisto replied.

"Hmm, I dunno, you have a _sword_ and the Executioner has an _axe._"

Callisto gave her a look and they continued running.

...

Trance and Mattie were nervously walking down the hallway when a door flew open in front of them. Tataka and Deianeira came prancing out, frantically wiping themselves off.

"Close the door!" Tataka exclaimed.

Deianeira slammed the door. "Why is it always spiders!"

"Look!" Mattie pointed to the crack in the bottom of the door. Tons and tons of creepy looking spiders poured out and started crawling up people's shoes. Deianeira did a little dance to get them off.

"Run!" Trance screamed, and they took off down the hall.

...

Mephistopheles and Thalassa came to yet another door. "Wanna try it?" Mephistopheles asked, sounding quite bored.

Thalassa shrugged. "Sure."

Mephistopheles opened the door a bit and peeked through. Then he swung it all the way opened. "Found the hallway."

"Finally!" Thalassa said, taking a step forward. They both halted when they heard screams and running footsteps.

Mephistopheles pulled Thalassa back. "Don't go out yet, I wanna see this."

They watched through the door as Trance, Mattie, Tataka, and Deianeira ran by, followed by a huge wave of spiders. Mephistopheles started cracking up.

"What's so funny?" Thalassa asked, looking worried.

"Did you see their faces!"

"They could be in real trouble if those spiders are poisonous!" Thalassa told him. "It's not funny."

"It_ is _funny, 'cause it's happening to them and not me," Mephistopheles replied.

"You're heartless."

Mephistopheles smiled evilly and began to go out but Thalassa stopped him. "Wait, I think someone else is coming."

Sure enough, Callisto, Gabrielle, Kaavi, and the Executioner came by, being chased by a mob of unnaturally fast zombies. Soon after, Xena and Hope came shoving past each other with a dragon on their heels.

"Come on, I don't want to miss this," Mephistopheles said, stepping through the door.

"What, you don't want to miss everyone getting killed?" Thalassa asked, then realized Mephistopheles was already gone. She sprinted after him.

"Dead end!" Trance announced.

The hallway had, indeed, finally ended. There wasn't a door in sight anymore.

They started shaking off the spiders and stomping on them. Four more people came barreling through the spiders, choosing them over the zombies.

The zombies followed, but they weren't as twitchy at getting the spiders off, so the spiders attacked. Soon there were nothing left of the zombies as the spiders ate them. Everyone started trying to kill the spiders more desperately.

Then Xena and Hope joined them. The spiders moved toward the dragon that had cornered them, but the dragon burnt them all to a crisp. Only a few were left clinging to pants and shoes.

The dragon sucked in a breath, preparing to blast all of them with fire. At Hope's command, Xena's sword suddenly flew off her back and plunged into the dragon's heart. Callisto's sword and Xena's chakram joined it. Then the Executioner's axe, just in case.

"Okay, it's dead, Hope," Xena said, going to retrieve her weapons.

Hope shrugged. "Just making sure. You should be thankful that I saved all your pathetic lives."

"You don't care about us. You were just saving yourself," Deianeira said. Hope glared.

Mephistopheles came running up, followed by Thalassa.

"Aww, no one even died," he said after inspecting the scene.

"Disappointing, isn't it?" Callisto responded.

"Can we just leave now?" Mattie asked.

"How?" Kaavi questioned.

Mattie pointed to a door that hadn't been there before.

Xena went over and peeked out, then opened it all the way. "It's the way out."

They walked out onto the creaky front porch they started on. They headed home without questioning it.

"Guess what? I was never scared," Mephistopheles told Deianeira on the way back. "You owe me ten dinars."

"I wasn't there with you, how do I know you weren't scared?" she asked.

"Thalassa was there. She'll tell you."

Deianeira looked to Thalassa. "Yeah, he was never scared," she confirmed.

"Fine," Deianeira huffed, giving him ten dinars.

...

When they were back home Kaavi was looking at the ad for the haunted house.

"Uh, guys?" she said. "We had the wrong date. And the wrong address..."

Everyone looked at each other.


End file.
